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Today's patch features the start of Player vs. Player testing for the World of Warcraft beta test, and we are pleased to announce the opening of an additional realm for this purpose. This new Player vs. Player realm is an all-out Horde vs. Alliance server, where the factions can finally battle! If this rollout is completed successfully, we will then officially begin the next phase of the World of Warcraft beta test and add the next round of testers. Due to the amount of changes and new content being implemented in this patch, we will be distributing the updated version of the beta via the Blizzard Downloader.

Please be sure to completely delete World of Warcraft from your computer prior to starting the download.

When entering the character-creation/selection area, players will see a "Realm Down" message and notice that their characters appear to be gone. This is because there are two servers available now. Please click on the "Change Realm" button to select one of the two available servers. The regular beta server will contain all of the old characters, and the PvP server will have no characters available.

Currently, players now have the ability to attack almost all opposing faction NPCs including vendors and quest givers. If a player attacks an opposing faction NPC, players of the opposite faction are then able to target and attack that player. Whenever an NPC is attacked, players who share the same faction as that NPC will receive a system message indicating that a specific town is under attack.

Please be aware that some quest NPCs might not always be available. If they have been killed, players should wait for the NPC to respawn. The development team expects there to be some bugs associated with this so be sure to /bug and /suggest whenever necessary.

Actions that will enable PvP on the standard player vs. environment server are: attacking an NPC of the opposing faction, attacking a player who attacked an NPC, and/or aiding a player engaged in PvP. Players will also have the ability to enable PvP on their own by using the /pvp command. Once PvP has been enabled by a player, no matter what the method, it will remain in effect for five minutes.

In time, all standard servers will include a consensual Player vs. Player system called Battlegrounds. Once Battlegrounds has been implemented, players will have the ability to attack other players to defend their cities and towns from invasion. We expect the Battlegrounds system to be available later during the beta test.

The new Horde vs. Alliance race war server will establish a straightforward method for the development team to test and balance the races and classes in a PvP environment. PvP concepts will be gradually introduced on this server. This means that the initial implementation of PvP is not how our final model will work once World of Warcraft is released. This patch includes the fundamental ideas of PvP in order to tune and refine the very foundation of our PvP model.

On the Horde vs. Alliance race war server, territories will be indicated whenever a player enters a new zone. The zone name will now include additional information to inform the player of the territories status. Additionally, the mini-map will be color coded to indicate who controls the zone: Green = Friendly, Red = Enemy and Yellow = Contested.

Players will be able to initiate player vs. player combat based on what territory they are in. Players in friendly territories are safe unless they decide to engage an opposing faction player in combat. Players in enemy territories will always be at risk and can be attacked by all players that belong in the territory. All players can be attacked in neutral (contested) territories.

Actions that will enable a player for PvP status on the Horde vs. Alliance race war server will be: entering or being in an enemy territory, entering or being in a contested territory, attacking an NPC of the opposing faction, attacking another player, and/or aiding a player engaged in PvP. Players will also be able to enable PvP on their own by using the /pvp command. Once PvP has been enabled for a player, no matter what the method, it will remain in effect for five minutes.

The Rest State system has undergone several changes. There are now three tiers of rest states: Rested = 200% experience, Normal = 150% experience and Tired = 100% experience.

The rest timer is much more flexible than before, allowing players to gradually accumulate incremental rest credit for all time spent logged out. Additionally, people who do not log into World of Warcraft for several days will gain bonus rest credit. This will allow those who only play once or twice a week the added bonus of playing as rested (200% experience) for longer periods of time than those who play on a daily basis.

Players also have the ability to rest anywhere in the world. This should help players who forget or choose not to log off at an inn. Resting at an inn is still the preferred method, as rest credit will accumulate four times faster for players logged off inside of an inn.

Lastly, the Rest State modifier is now level-based using a sliding scale to determine how much experience you can gain at each tier instead of the previous flat 20,000 experience per level.

When visiting one of the six main cities (Darnassus, Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff and The Undercity), players will no longer need to check into the inn to rest. Players will however still need to seek an innkeeper to receive a hearthstone or to bind themselves to the city.

In this initial implementation, there will be some areas close to the cities that will allow a player to rest without actually being in the city. There are also some areas within each city that are not currently activated for resting. Please be sure to check the character portrait to ensure that the character is resting before logging off. The team is aware of this and will continue to work through these areas.

The focus of the skill system is to allow characters the ability to choose secondary skills. As such, attributes will now raise automatically when a character levels. As a result of this change, characters will receive fewer skill points than before.

Current characters may lose some skill points to compensate for the redesign of the Skill System. In some instances, characters may fall into a negative skill point status if they have already spent more skill points than the new system will a lot them.

All of the older characters from previous patches have been unlocked and are available once again. The older characters have all been assigned skill points as appropriate for their levels. Their talents have been disabled.

With a few exceptions, all items and currency are being deleted for this patch. The following items will not be deleted: Bags, Scarlet Key, all Shaman Totems and the Hearthstone. Each character will be assigned funds based on their level.

Players will be able to redo quests that have already been completed in order to gain back quest items.

All quest progress for existing characters has been reset. Characters have the ability to go back and redo all quests if they wish. For players that were in the middle of a quest chain, those quests will need to be restarted from the beginning.

Quests were reset to allow players the means for reacquiring lost quest items and to participate in the many quests that have been fixed and rebalanced.

The beginnings of the new resistance system are in the game. Players and some creatures now have the ability to resist damage from offensive spells and abilities based on their total resistance, their level and the level of the person or creature causing the damage.

Players now have the ability to send and receive in-game mail through World of Warcraft's postal system. Every inn has a mailbox that players can right click in order to access mailbox functionality.

There are several types of mail:

Normal Mail: This is text only mail written on stationery. Normal mail may also include money.

Package: Players will receive a package when an item is sent to them. A package can also include a text message and money.

C.O.D: Players will receive a C.O.D. mail when an item has been sent to them that they still need to pay for. C.O.D. mail will need to be accepted and paid for, rejected or postponed until its expiration date.

Normal Mail will arrive at its destination immediately while Packages and C.O.D items will take one hour to arrive.

Race specific mounts are now available. A player can train in any mount; however, the skill points necessary to train for a mount assigned to a different race will cost significantly more skill points.

The Warlock spell to summon the Nightmare, a Warlock specific mount, is available as well. The Paladin's class specific mount, The Charger, will be available at a later date.

Support for wide screen ratios (16:9, 16:10 and 5:4) have been added as a fullscreen choice. The video options have been enhanced to list individual display resolution modes. At this time, windowed mode will still be limited to a 4:3 ratio.

World of Warcraft beta testers using the Macintosh version will need to upgrade their OS to OS X 10.3.4 or World of Warcraft will not run. OS X 10.3.4 is a free upgrade from any previous 10.3 releases and contains OpenGL drivers that are now necessary for World of Warcraft to operate on a Macintosh system.

Gnomeregan, a level 24 - 33 dungeon is now opened and itemized in Dun Morogh.

Uldaman, a level 35 - 45 dungeon is now open and itemized in The Badlands.

When a player logs out in an instance dungeon and that instance dungeon resets, the player will be moved to the zone in the area they used to enter the dungeon.

The non-instanced area of Razorfen Downs is available to give testers a sneak peek. Razorfen Downs is located in Southern Barrens. The instanced portion of Razorfen Downs is expected to be available for the next patch.

Alchemy: Alchemy has been increased to level 50. Thirty new recipes have been added. The ability to transmute metals has been added. Invisibility potions now last for 20 seconds. Potion effects will not stack with themselves, but will stack with class buffs.

Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing has been increased to level 50. Forty new recipes have been added. At high levels, players have the ability to specialize as an Armorsmith or Weaponsmith. The Iron Buckle recipe now makes two buckles for one iron bar. Golden Scale Glove recipes have been added.

Cooking: Recipes that require fish have been added to the Alliance areas.

Engineering: The Mechanical Dragonling's health has been reduced. Scopes no longer require the Engineering skill to equip.

First Aid: Bandages are now interrupted during combat. The cooldown timer for bandages has been removed, however each player can receive treatment only once in a 60 second period.

Fishing: The skill-up rates for fishing have changed; we look forward to feedback regarding the new system. Messages in a bottle now have a chance of having a recipe in them.

Herbalism: Stranglekelp, a new lower level herb has been added to level 15 30 watery areas. More herbal nodes have been added to the world. Herbal nodes will no longer respawn in instance dungeons. New icons appear when herbal nodes are targeted. New, high level herbs have been added around the world; the ability to harvest some of the new herbs will become available in the next patch.

Leatherworking: Leatherworking has been increased to level 50. Fifty new recipes have been added. At high levels, players have the ability to specialize as a Dragonscale Leatherwoker, Elemental Leatherworker or Tribal Leatherworker.

Mining: Smelting bronze now requires one copper and two tin to produce two bronze bars. More mining nodes have been added to the world. Mineral nodes will no longer respawn in instance dungeons. New icons appear when mineral nodes are targeted.

Skinning: The skill-up rates for skinning have changed; we look forward to feedback regarding the new system. Players can no longer harvest pelts from creatures that are of much higher levels than their skinning levels.

Survival: Campfires now last 10 minutes.

Tailoring: Bolts of wool now require three woolen cloths. Bolts of silk now require four silk cloths. Linen drops have been increased.